The New Will and New Understanding

 

By the the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn

One of the main uses of DE HEMELSCHE LEER has been to make clear the distinction between the Word and Doctrine out of the Word. The Word as it is in itself, or, what is the same, the Word as seen by the Lord, is the Divine Doctrine itself, the Divine above the Heavens, the Esse of the Divine Doctrine, while the genuine Doctrine out of the Word is the Divine Doctrine in the Heavens and the Church, which is called “the Divine a se”, or “the Divine from itself”; this is the Existere of the Divine Doctrine.

We read in NINE QUESTIONS I: “The Son of Man in the spiritual sense signifies the truth of the Church out of the Word”. And in the CANONS: “That to him who speaks a word against the Son of Man it is remitted, is because [it is remitted] to him who denies this and that to be Divine Truth out of the Word in the Church, if only he believes that in the Word and out of the Word are Divine Truths. The Son of Man is the Divine Truth out of the Word in the Church, and this cannot be seen by all”, Holy Spirit V : 9.

All who acknowledge the Writings of Swedenborg as the Word of the Lord, can see that the Truths of the New Church are primarily out of this Newest Testament given by means of Swedenborg, and yet strangely it is denied that the Truths of the Church are Divine. To deny the Divinity of the Truths of the Church out of the Word is to deny the Son of Man. It is to be noted that to speak a word against the Son of Man may be forgiven, provided one “believes that in the Word and out of the Word are Divine Truths”. It is now commonly believed that in the Word are Divine ‘Truths, but it is not believed that “out of the Word in the Church are Divine Truths”. Divine Truths out of the Word in the Church are called: the Doctrine of genuine Truth, also the Doctrine of Divine Truth, for we read, “No one can see the spiritual sense except out of the Doctrine of genuine Truth. ‘” It is not allowed to anyone in the natural world, nor in the spiritual world, to investigate the spiritual sense of the Word out of the sense of the letter of it, unless he is entirely in the Doctrine of Divine Truth, and in enlightenment from the Lord; wherefore out of the Doctrine of Divine Truth confirmed out of the sense of the letter of the Word, the spiritual sense can be seen”, CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE FROM EXPERIENCE XXI. Thus the Word teaches that Doctrine out of the Word is Divine, for we read further: “Divine Doctrine is the Word in the internal sense… ; Divine Doctrine is also the Word in the literal sense … ; also the Doctrine thence is Divine”, A.C. 3712. Hence it follows that if the teaching of the Word that “in the Church out of the Word are Divine Truths”, and that “one must be entirely in the Doctrine of Divine Truth”, and that “the Word and also Doctrine thence are Divine” be denied, it involves a denial of the Word in which this teaching is given.

It is commonly said that all good and truth are from the Lord, this is an acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit; but it is said that the truths in the Church out of the Word are not Divine, this is a denial of the Son of Man. The essential falsity of this position lies in the fact that it is believed that good and truth are received in man’s own will and understanding.

We read in the ARCANA CELESTIA as follows: “With no man is there any Understanding of truth or Will of good …; but when they become celestial, there appears as if there were a Will of good and an Understanding of truth, but it is the Lord’s alone”, n. 633. Again: “The new will, which is of charity, … is not man’s, but the Lord’s with the man; and this, because it is the Lord’s, must never be commingled with the things of man’s will”, n. 1001. “Through regeneration man receives a new will; but the will which he receives through regeneration is not man’s, but the Lord’s with the man”, n. 10035. “The regenerate spiritual man receives the Divine Good in the new will, and the Divine Truth in the new understanding”, n. 3394.

The statement that the Doctrine of the Church is not man’s own understanding but the understanding which is the Lord’s with man, was called, in the ministers’ meetings 1933, ridiculous.

From the above it is evident that the saying that DE HEMELSCHE LEER makes man Divine is a misrepresentation, and is in fact entirely untrue, for DE HEMELSCHE LEER has never said that anything which is of man is Divine, but only that which is the Lord’s with man.

Human good would be good received in man’s will, and human truth would be truth received in man’s understanding, instead of in the will and understanding which are the Lord’s with man. That such good does not exist is taught as follows: “All good is Divine with man, because it is from the Divine”, A.C. 10618; and that such truth does not exist is taught as follows: “Every truth which is a truth is Divine”, A.E. 34. But in spite of the teaching of the Word men wish to receive good in their own will, and truth in their own understanding, that is to love and believe from themselves, thus to have human goods and truths.
Concerning this wish we read in the ARCANA CELESTIA as follows: “The Angels themselves in respect to the proprium of them do not make Heaven; but in respect to the Divine which they receive from the Lord …. Each one of them there acknowledges, believes, and also perceives, that nothing of good is from themselves, but from the Lord …. From this it can be seen how it is to be understood that the Lord is the all in all of Heaven; also that the Lord dwells there in His Own [that is, in the will and under¬standing which are His] ; and likewise that by an Angel in the Word is signified something of the Lord …. Similarly it is with the Church. In respect to what is the proprium of them [their own will and understanding], the men there do not make the Church, but in respect to the Divine which they receive from the Lord; for every one there who does not acknowledge and believe that all the good of love and truth of faith is from God, is not of the Church; for he wills to love God from himself [from his own will] and to believe in God from himself [from his own understanding], which however no one can do …. The Church is the Lord’s Heaven on earth, consequently the Lord in the Church is also the all in all, as in Heaven, and He there dwells in His Own [the will and understanding which are His] with men, as with the Angels in Heaven”, n. 10151. “The Lord is present with the Angels of Heaven and with the men of the Church not in the proprium of them, but in His Own [the will and understanding which are His] with them, thus in the Divine”, n. 10157. Everywhere in the Word it is taught that the genuine Doctrine from the Word in the Church is Divine. The teaching that such Doctrine is not Divine is not from the Word, but from the wishes or the will of men.